It seems like a significant number of believers are biting at the bit. We often use the term, ”biting at the bit” but do we really know what this means? My oldest daughter started riding horses at 10 years old and continued until she went to university. One of the horses she had was absolutely wonderful. She won the Canadian championship on this horse. We loved to see the two of them together. Another horse she had was called Squirrel. Now this horse she bought from the race track. She did not like men. My daughter had a wonderful way with this horse. Not so with me. She would walk the track calculating moves and jumps. I was left holding holding Squirrel. With the skittish horse dancing on the end of a rope, I held onto with all my might.

I never thought that I would call suffering my friend, I sit here with fractured ribs, vertebrae in my neck warn out, recovering from a broken back, dealing with an auto-immune disease called PMR, an uncooperative chemical system, and living with the side effects of some pretty harsh drugs. There is much more in this list, but I don’t like to give sickness too much attention. Suffice to say, I have almost lost my life several times. I know many of you are saying, pray for healing. My answer is I have. It seems the harder I pray the worse I get. Now I have believed in total healing for probably longer than you have born in this fallen world. I have forgotten what a painless life is like.

I will not roll over and quit. So what do I do? I press into God’s Mercy. I have at times felt as weak as a kitten and I wish I was healthy. I always wonted a healing ministry. I have probably seen more sickness and death more than most. Ten years working in chronic and palliative care, six years doing pathologic autopsies on the dead searching for the cause of death, five years with eight mentally adult women living in my home. Through all this I was pastoring some of the most difficult people. This just scratches the surface of my involvement in suffering. I am tired of it! But I would not trade any of the, morbid experiences for anything.

One thing I can testify is that I have not been short-changed by God who says he heals and delivers. It will come. In the mean time He comes to me in my weakness. God’s Love and Kindness makes me love Him back. Sickness takes a back seat. I heard this story a long time ago. A man was jailed because of his faith. They whipped and beat on him terribly. Then he mercilessly was thrown in to his dark and filthy cell. There alone with no medical help covered in blood and bruises the Lord came to him. He felt the warmth and Love of Jesus running his hand up and down the torn flesh of his back. What he said next brings me to tears. “He was so wonderful. His love was greater than the pain of the whipping and beatings. It was so wonderful. I had a strange feeling that I wanted to be tortured again just to feel His love and touch.” Love You….Dan

We all can see that Governments for years have been manipulating all aspects of life to bring a system not based on the wholesome attributes given to us of the mom and pa and the kids social structures. Communistic principles are being implemented in secret by our Government that breaks down every structure that has been in place forever. Tried and true social systems, that often are somewhat flawed we know, have sustained us and prospered us making our societies healthy, wealthy and wise. The tool of our governments has been a media that figures “the end justifies the means.”

How has this happened in the face of the church who preaches “God can do anything”? For the most part, through the past years, we have been pre-occupied with a proliferation of non essential issues. Now we are paying the price. A few Prophets have spoken to our situations. They have said we are warring with the insignificant while ignoring the "real" battles. I have opposed and grieved over what I have seen. The church has been fighting each other in the sandbox and not seen that someone has stolen the house. "The only way darkness can grow is when the church has lost it’s light.”

It is a terrible thing to fall into the hand of God. To all of us who have disregarded the fact that God is our plumbline and have been swimming in a dirty pond, God is now judging. He has winked at our foolery. He has watched us throw sand in each others eyes. He is full of our squabbles as the enemy robs us of our children's heart.

For many centuries we were societies that lived and breathed in a Christian environment. You could say the culture or “matrix” was religious but not always joined with Christ. During the 1960’s rising in the vacuum where much of the church lacked relevance, a new matrix rose to create a new culture. The new chant among intellectuals was “God is dead.” The, God is dead mantra, took hold of young and old minds alike. To believe in a God brought disdain towards many young believers leaving them ostracized and even mentally and emotionally persecuted. This became the matrix of university life. By removal of any moral compass or accountability, open sex became an unbridled desire giving birth to sexual transmitted disease at an unprecedented rate.